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<p> Agile Software Development methods such as Scrum, SAFe, Kanban, and Large Scale Agile (LeSS) promise substantial benefits in terms of productivity, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, quality project management overhead, and time to market. As Agile methods have become widespread in the software development industry and begin to take root in the overall business community, there is an increasing need to understand the firm level impact of the implementation of these methods. To build the most effective business case for organizations in and out of the software development industry, it is imperative that a case be made to show that the implementation of Agile frameworks has constituted a competitive advantage. This study investigated the organization level performance impact of switching from traditional methods to the use of Agile frameworks. The results showed that changing from a traditional methodology to an Agile framework resulted in higher return on assets and lower operating expense ratios. The interaction between time and methodology for OER, ROA, or revenues in Table 6 did not show a significant difference, indicating that the null hypothesis cannot be rejected. Thus, we cannot say whether performance differs as a function of type of agile methodology. That said, the non-parametric sign test shows that the median improvement in Operating Expense Ratios were highest for Scrum while SAFe seemed to show a slightly higher improvement in Return on Assets. On the whole, Scrum seems to outperform SAFe in terms of operating efficiency (as measured by OER) but lags in terms of ROA.</p><p>

<p>Abstract Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems present a management problem for various industries including institutions of higher education (IHEs) because they are costly to acquire, challenging to implement, and often fail to meet anticipated expectations. ERP systems are highly complex due to the nature of the operations they support. This dissertation was conducted via a systematic review of the literature from 1998-2017 to synthesize available knowledge in various industries including IHEs in the United States. Through the lenses of Change Management Theory and The Diffusion of Innovations Theory, this systematic review highlighted critical success factors (CSFs) affecting the implementation of ERP systems in various industries and, also, sought to discover CSFs unique to institutions of higher education. Despite the challenges ERP presents to businesses, implementation of ERP systems continues to grow. This dissertation found that for various industries, the most often cited CSFs were: top management support, change management skills, effective communications, and ERP systems user training. For IHEs, institutional governance, staff engagement, lack of internal expertise, and conflicts with other priorities were the critical factors that played a significant role in ERP implementation. These findings suggested that industries must not only pay careful attention to the CSFs in various industries but that they can utilize the specific CSFs in IHEs, even though they may not appear to be as crucial for other industries. Future research may consider the extent to which organizations have mastered the skills necessary to effectively implement ERP systems. Keywords: enterprise resource planning systems, critical success factors, CSFs, implementation, higher education, innovation management

<p> Concerns related to the protection of personal identification information, graphic user interface, patient privacy, and consumer acceptance, to name a few, have plagued the implementation of telemedicine. Advocates of telemedicine have gained the interests of consumers but failed to recognize the true nature of consumer attitudes towards the use of telemedicine. This research was a significant step towards understanding consumer unwillingness to use telemedicine. Understanding and acknowledging what customers feel is detrimental to improving the telemedicine implementation process. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore consumers who may have experienced cognitive dissonance between their interest and the use of wireless body area networks. The interpretative phenomenological method was employed to understand and contribute knowledge about the phenomenon. The research participants were randomly selected patients, physicians, nurses, paramedics, and healthcare professionals. The findings contribute to knowledge by exposing the relevance of understanding cognitive dissonance, and its underrated affiliations. Such alliances play a meaningful role when embracing or rejecting the use of telemedicine. Future research may consider aligning and employing use behavioral models, such as the social cognitive theory, or the social capital theory, to help increase knowledge and understanding of consumer cognitive dissonance towards the use of telemedicine Advocates planning to implement telemedicine in rural areas could use these findings to help diminish or subdue indigenous consumer anxiety towards the use of telemedicine.</p><p>

Today's business environment is characterised by organisational dependence on information and communication technology. At the same time, this reliance on information technology and systems (IT/IS, hereafter IT) has given rise to concerns about how to evaluate IT investment initiatives. Issues such as the popular 'productivity paradox' and the broader 'value for IT money' (e.g., Brynjolfsson and Hitt 1998; Davern and Kauffman 2000) debate have further fuelled the extensive research in the area of IT investment and assessment. However, a review of current literature reveals a number of differences between IT investment assessment literature and traditional capital budgeting literature, particularly in the way that the entire decision making process is rarely discussed in IT investment decision making research. Instead, much attention has been focused on project justification or evaluation alone. Thus, it was argued for this research that an emphasis on the entire decision making process - from IT planning and analysis to post-implementation evaluation - is important, as potential organisational and other contextual variables that may not be apparent at the evaluation stage, can be better identified and appreciated. Another theme that this research seeks to investigate is the applicability and practicability of current IT decision making theories and evaluation methods discussed in the literature. Considering the breadth and depth of existing research in this area, IT investment decision making is, however, still seen as problematic today (e.g., Mahmood and Mann 2000). In particular, the literature reports a polarisation of empirical evidence towards the use of either over-optimistic or over-pessimistic forecasts of IT performance and return on investment (e.g., Irani et al. 1997). Thus, the usefulness of these theoretical models and techniques cannot be seen as clearly established. As a result, no single theory or technique can be said to be unequivocally successful in helping firms to evaluate IT investment opportunities and to identify where IT value lies. This discrepancy between the desired and the actual outcomes of IT investment decision making highlights a possible gap between what is offered in theory by researchers and what is used by practitioners. Gaining an understanding of the underlying issues associated with this gap is important, as its existence raises questions about the veracity of recent theoretical developments in IT investment decision making methodology. Hence, the research problem investigated in this research is: What is the level of applicability and practicability of the current theories and techniques relevant to IT investment decision making and evaluation, as observed in large Australian companies? To address the research question, this research was conducted by two studies. The first study adopted a survey methodology to establish the specific decision making content and process involved in IT investment. The collected data from this part of the research were used for both descriptive and inferential statistics analysis purposes. The second study consisted of three convergent interviews, which examined the significant institutional contexts that might influence the decision outcome, further adding meaning to the findings of the first study. The key findings of the research are that the planning, evaluation, and post-implementation evaluation activities for IT investments have not been performed widely and consistently. Although sophisticated evaluation methods have been developed over the years, they do not appear to have provided a satisfactory answer to improve IT decision making practice. It appears that the underlying problem with IT investment decision making cannot be explained by the inadequacy of the adopted evaluation techniques alone, and answers must also lie elsewhere. Two potential problem areas were found to be organisations' unenthusiastic attitude towards IT, and a general lack of applicability and practicability of current decision making and evaluation theories. The unenthusiastic attitude towards IT is explained by several factors as identified in this research. Particularly, they were related to: (1) difficulty with forecasting future business needs, (2) lack of time for sufficient IT planning, (3) performance of past IT investments leading to IT conservatism, (4) IT being generally seen as operating costs, (5) budgetary constraint, (6) competitors' imitation leading to undifferentiated or similar technology/process, (7) technologies fast becoming obsolete, and (8) organisation complexity, power structure, and existing policy and procedures all making change difficult. It was suggested that without fundamentally changing the way technology is perceived and treated by the business community, the value of IT will continue to be questioned and IT investment decision making will continue to be difficult. The lack of applicability and practicability of contemporary decision making and evaluation theories was also found to be significant, with very few organisations considering them to be useful. Four key factors impeding adequate system planning and evaluation were also uncovered: (1) business necessity remains a main IT driver, (2) IT is accepted as a cost of being in business, (3) users' IT needs must be met responsively, and (4) IT is inherently difficult to evaluate with any accuracy. As a result, organisations were often found to adopt the following evaluation strategies: (1) situational, rather than systematic evaluation, (2) a cost-management approach to evaluation, often resulting in the use of an excessive discount rate or cost of capital, (3) waiting for the technology in question to mature before investing. The contribution of this research is that it has both theoretical and practical significance. The theoretical significance of this research arises from insights into the existing body of theory and further, from theorising about the decision making practices as adopted by large Australian companies. At the same time, this research also serves as a practical reference for the development of decision making practice and policy. Only with a clear understanding of the important aspects involved in IT investment decision making, can organisations define and approach their investment tasks more successfully.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2006. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Information technology systems are an integral part of many sectors of business and the application of information technology in new sectors of business is increasing continually. Businesses believe that by applying information technology systems in their business processes they will ultimately improve on the profits through increased operational efficiency, reduction of costs and improved ability to make informed decisions. However implementing an information technology system is usually a complex affair involving the technology supplier, client organisation and other stakeholders. The common method of implementing information technology systems is to set up a project in an attempt to manage the cross organisational and cross departmental issues as best as possible. Industry reports that the success of information technology project implementation is low. This study project has analysed 16 sources of literature pertaining to failures in information technology projects, in order to ascertain how the various authors define a project failure and whether project management failure is a major contributor to these failures. Also to examine areas within project management which are deemed to make the most significant contribution to project failure. The study concludes that most of the authors examined define project failure in terms of project management criteria, being cost, time and function (quality). Furthermore it concludes that project management failure is a significant factor in information technology project failure and that the facets of project management failure encountered with information systems implementation projects are not that different from other forms of projects. The main contributing factors being lack of executive support, lack of business case or user requirements, lack of project management expertise, lack of planning, lack of user involvement and changing requirements. The study recommends that organisations need to be aware of the cross functional and cross organisational requirements of information technology project management and that all levels of management in stakeholder organisations need to have the relevant knowledge and experience to deal with these requirements. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Inliglings legnologie slelsels inlegrale uil menigle besigheids seklore en die loepassing daarvan (ITS) in nuwe seklore voorldurend Besighede mel loepassing van ITS in hulle besigheids prosesse dil aanleiding sou gee 101 die graei doellreffenheid, die afname in bedryfskosle en ook verbelerde besluitneming . Die daarslelling van 'n ITS is gewoonlik 'n baie moeilike proses wal onder andere insluil die verskaller van legnologie, die klienlorganisasie asook ander deelnemers. Die algemene melode van implemenlering van ITS kan geskied deurmiddel van 'n projek in die poging om kruisorganisasie en kruisdeparlemenlele funksies/werkings Ie beharlig. Terugvoering van bedryf dui aan dal die implemenlerings sukses van inligling legnologie projekle eintiik baie laag is. Hierdie sludie hel in lolaal lileraluur mel belrekking 101 inliglings legnologie projekle, ontieed om sodoende Ie bepaal hoe verskeie skrywers 'n projek mislukking definieer en of die mislukking projek besluur enigsins 'n bydraende faklor kon wees. Asook die ondersoek van areas binne die beslek van projek besluur wal wei 'n noemenswaardige inwerking kon he 101 die mislukking van projekle. iv Opsemming Inligtings tegnologie stelsels (ITS) maak 'n integrale deel uit van menigte sektore toepassing sektore is voortdurend aan die groei. 8esighede glo met die toepassing prose sse dit tot greei van wins. Laasgenoemde as gevolg van verhoogde bedryfs doeltreffenheid, bedryfskoste verbeterde vermoens vir insiggewende besluitneming. daarstelling wat insluit verskaffer tegnologie, klientorganisasie metode implementering kruisdepartementele te behartig . dat implementerings in li gting tegnologie projekte studie het totaal 16 literatuur bronne, met betrekking tot die faal/mislukking van inligtings tegnologie projekte, te van bestuur faktor bestek bestuur wat tot projekte. As gevolg van die navorsing kom hierdie studie tot die slotsom dat skrywers projek-mislukking definieer in terme van projek bestuur kriteria wat 5005 volg lui; koste, tyd en funksie (gehalte). Verder is ook gese dat projek bestuur mislukking 'n groot bydraende faktor uitmaak aangaande inligtings tegnologie projek- mislukking en dat faseUe van projek bestuur mislukking gesien met inligtings stelsel implementering projekte, nie te vee I verskil van ander vorms van projekte nie. Die hoof bydraende faktore kan toegeskryf word aan die gebrek van uitvoerende bestuur ondersteuning, gebrek aan besigheids saak of verbruikers vereistes, gebrek aan projek bestuur kennis, gebrek aan beplanning, gebrek aan deelname van verbruikers asook die voortdurende verandering van vereistes. Hierdie studie beveel aan dat organisasies bewus moet raak van die kruiswerking/kruisfunksionering en kruisorganisie vereistes van inligtings tegnologie projek bestuur en dat aile bestuurs vlakke van deelnemende organisasies ook genoegsaam toepaslike kenn is en ondervinding moet he om sodoende die vereistes te behartig .

There is limited empirical research on the application of Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) in staff retention and management. This study aims to examine and analyse the impact of quality human resource information systems (e.g. recruitment information, personnel information, and audit of training sessions) on staff turnover factors at the recruitment and selection stage (e.g. remuneration, human resource planning, quality of training programmes, and lack of promotion opportunities), and consequently the impact of HIRS in managing staff retention. This research is conducted in the context of the hospitality sector. The research aim is achieved through satisfying the objectives and the development of a relevant and a novel framework. A conceptual framework is developed to address the use of HRIS with regard to the recruitment and selection process and in aiding managers in staff retention within the context of the hospitality sector. The framework consists of three phases: recruitment and selection process including human resource management (HRM) and information technology systems (ITS) in the recruitment and selection stage; human resource information systems (HRIS) application areas; and staff turnover factors (external and internal). This framework developed by using two theories, the institutional theory and job characteristics theory, as the theoretical underpinning of this study. A single case study with multiple subcases strategy is employed to evaluate, extend and theorise the effect of HRIS on staff retention. The data for this research is collected by using in-depth semi-structured interviews. Qualitative data are collected from four branches of the UK based hospitality organisation. 27 employees completed in-depth narrative interviews (13 managers and 14 non-managers), which the results were used to confirm and validate the developed framework. The findings are triangulated by the adoption of a series of techniques, including focus group discussion, and document analysis. This study has made use the qualitative analysis computer software NVivo V.10.This research study contributes to the literature of both HRM and IT/IS by developing a comprehensive theoretical framework that considers the relationship between staff retention and HRIS functions at the recruitment and selection stage. The research findings support and showed that, not all the factors affected staff turnover can be monitored by HRIS, and some staff turnover factors may require other strategies with respect to monitoring. The framework will benefit scholars and managers in understanding the impact of a quality HRIS on staff retention, and extends the knowledge in this regard. The framework is extended for usage by different hospitality organisations with similar business nature to the one understudy. Also, the findings show that relevant retention strategies could be applicable during the entire employment period, e.g. before, during and after recruitment. These strategies enable the organisation to be stable and improve managing retention at the very beginning period of employment and avoid the costs of staff turnover. The empirical findings also advance our understanding of the various HRM activities that are linked to retention at the recruitment and selection stage. More importantly, the research findings identify the immediate activities after recruitment which is linked to improving retention. The study aims at providing a valid framework that integrates both HRM, ITS, and identifies the role of HRIS with regard to improving retention, by identifying staff turnover factors and put in place retention strategies to deal with them, for new jobs’ applications at the recruitment and selection stage. The originality of this study is that provide fresh insights on the subjective of retention in the hospitality sector in the UK. This research complements and advances the current literature on having a quality IT/IS which provides vital information to help managers to make the right decisions on retention of members of staff. In addition, this research could prove beneficial to practitioner’s (managers) who involve in the decision making in the recruitment process, thus better retention in the hospitality sector.

Maintenance is one area of business that recently has been considered as an activity contributing efficiently to the companies' strategic goals. Understanding the way maintenance could utilise modern technology such as computerised tools or digital data processing is one way to make maintenance profitable. Current research lack appropriate methods for determining data and IT requirements, as well as understanding the way IT could be utilised for enhancing maintenance profitability. This thesis studies and develops tools, methods and theories of how information technology can be utilised for maintenance management in order to reach profitable maintenance. The main research problem is therefore: What are the demands on information technology systems to achieve profitable maintenance? The main problem has been divided into three research questions: RQ1) What are the demands on data and information technology systems for strategic management of maintenance?, RQ2) How can we identify relevant data and information technology systems required to achieve cost-effective maintenance decisions? and RQ3) How can we describe the utilisation of information technology within maintenance? This thesis is based on a systems theory approach, where maintenance is not seen as an isolated activity, but something that interacts, affects and is affected by several other activities, such as production, logistic and quality. Several methods have been used for answering the research questions, but the theory-testing case study method dominates. Main results achieved in the thesis are models and theory for 1) creating a relevant set of data for cost-effective mainte-nance decisions, 2) monitoring the performance of maintenance, suggest invest-ment possibilities and show maintenance contribution on company strategic level, 3) identifying IT systems requirements demanded to achieve profitable maintenance and 4) assessing the IT maturity of a maintenance organisation for the effective utilisation of IT systems. As an illustrative example of computerised maintenance management demands a conceptual decision support model has been developed, which aims at filling the gaps of poor IT coverage for strategic maintenance decision-making. This thesis concludes that the demands of data and IT applications must be connected to the overall maintenance demands, which are reflected in the maintenance goals, purposes and strategy, in order to achieve profitable maintenance. Furthermore, structured methods that ensure the connection between maintenance business goals and data or IT demands are of importance. The ability to make use if IT within maintenance is reflected in the relative IT maturity of the maintenance organisation. Being able to define the IT maturity allows for choosing the most appropriate IT tool to invest in, so that current and future needs of IT support are also covered for with maximum benefit and minimum cost.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T13:53:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CesarABS_DISSERT.pdf: 1492389 bytes, checksum: 7dd981d1593ae45098ed7a3e34f7801c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-09-18 / Atualmente, um dos aspectos da gest?o da informa??o que se encontra em evid?ncia ? o da arquitetura empresarial, entendida como o conjunto de pol?ticas e escolhas t?cnicas de padroniza??o e integra??o para viabilizar as estrat?gias de neg?cios da organiza??o. Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo analisar a integra??o de dois sistemas de gest?o na Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) a partir das lentes da arquitetura empresarial. A influ?ncia dessa abordagem induz a organiza??o a desenvolver um alicerce de execu??o com o interesse de suportar com maior efici?ncia sua estrat?gia e obter agilidade em seus processos de neg?cio. A an?lise da integra??o desses dois sistemas, atrav?s de entrevistas semiestruturadas, no ?mbito da UFRN possibilitou a percep??o da necessidade de uma estrutura??o dos processos de TI a partir de uma arquitetura que favore?a um melhor alinhamento das capacidades de TI aos objetivos da organiza??o. A aus?ncia de um modelo operacional pode comprometer a efici?ncia do Sistema Integrado de Gest?o das Atividades Acad?micas (SIGAA) da UFRN na realiza??o do seu objetivo como plataforma ?nica de gest?o das informa??es da universidade